Aptasia Solution in a Cuttle Tank??

[Paradox]

I have aptasia in my cuttle tank and was wondering if anyone ahs any solutions that would help. I normally would buy 25 peppermint shrimps and watch them dissapear, but obviously, the shrimps would become food real quick.

Ive been using a syringe and using boiling kalk, but they still pop up after a week or so. Is Joes juice better??

I have 4 5 month old bandensis in this tank. Would a copperband be ok?

Thanks!!

 

[cuttlegirl]

What about the nudibranch Berghia verrucicornis? Check out this link http://www.saltyunderground.com/

 

[William Tyson]

i used joes juice on my old angler tank, it worked well. copperbands are realy hard to keep in my opinion, unless you get the red sea species which is harder to find and much more expensive. i would go with the nudibranch if you can get ahold of one.

 

[Paradox]

Has anyone had any experience with this nudibranch? I thikn i might have tried one a looong time ago and it didnt eat it. But I might be geting this mixed up with a nudi I bought to eat hair algae heh..

 

[William Tyson]

i know that those nudi's work, they use them at a local lfs but they change 60 a pop so i didnt buy any

 

[Colin]

I'd be tempted to go with the Joes Juice or a similar product. Either that or set up a small 5 gal tank that you can have a few pep shrimps in and transfer rock back and forth until the cuttles have passed on.

I used to syringe mine

 

[chrono_war01]

but wouldn't moving the rocks and stuff upset the cuttle?

 

[Colin]

No more so than general tank maintenance or sticking your hand in with a syringe.

i agree it is not ideal but neither is having aiptasia... depends how badly you want rid of them?

 

[joefish84]

step 1

take out infested rocks

step 2

get out the gel formula super glue

step 3

super glue the bastards in their places covering them completely

step 4

let glue dry out of water

step 5

place rock back in tank


thats how ive always done it in my reef tank and i did this in my bimacs tank without any problems

 

[Thales]

The kalk or joesjuice will work, but it need to be ingested by the appy. Simply covering it will allow it to grow back.

 

[Feelers]

From a NZ reefing forum I frequent.....

Aipstasia. My area of expertise

Kevan, these things really are the spawn of satan and must be delt with. Those who know me know I have been fighting Aipstasia from day one. I started with about 120kgof live rock, and it was infested with Aipstasia. I did nothing and thought it would sort it self out. It won't.

You must get in there and do it yourself. Copperbands work sometimes, as do some wrasses, but other than that there are no real predation options in NZ (there are some shrimp and some nudi but none are available here and the importers can't be bothered trying).

I actually killed some more last night. I have the numbers in my tank down to single digits. Infact I am only aware of 4 in my tank after last night, but I am sure there will be a few more.

The trick is to kill them weekly. I often killed heaps, then left it for a month, giving them enough time to breed and spawn and create more. You need to keep pressing the attack, making an effort to get each and every one until there are none left. I have been doing this since christmas, started of killing dozens a night twice a week. Now I get less than 10 every 2 weeks. And I hope soon less than 5 once a month...

How to kill them? I have tried everything, lime juice, hot water, copper wire and Kalkwasser. I havn't tried hydrochloric acid but some do use it.

I needed a soultion that I could use in the tank. Ultimatly the Kalkwasser paste works best for me.

How to use it? Get a small glass (I use a shot glass) and put some Kalk powder in there, then mix in some RO/DI water until its a thick liquid, not quite paste (I find this works the best). Not really runny, but not as thick as say toothpaste. Just a very thick liquid.

I then have a 10ml syringe with a piece of plastic hose on it (the stuff from hospitals they use for drips, but any hose thats thin and will fit the end of the syringe will work), its about 2mm diamater. Suck the kalkwasser mixture into the syringe.

Turn off ALL circulation pumps and wait for 5. Get lots of towels and rags

Depending on the size and configuration of the tank you may need help, my partner Jane often acts as a spotter for me as it can be hard to do both. Locate aipstasia. Squeeze a little kalk out onto the aipstasia, it will eat it, often wrapping its tenticles around the paste and drawing it into its mouth. Depending on the size and position of the Aipstasia I try and cover the little bugger with a lump of kalk. This stuff burns the aipstasia to death melting it away.

WARNING - If the kalk mixture touches anything else, clam, coral, sponge etc it will burn it too so be carefull. I use a turkey baister on standby, if I drop some on a coral I use this to blow it away.

Continue this method until there are none visible. Repeat every week.

If you have an infestation like I had, limit the number you do in one sitting as the PH will spike very high with too much kalk mixture in the water. I use no more than 2 10ml syringes per sitting in my 900 litres of water, this spikes my PH to about 8.35 from 8.3.

If you can use some filter wool, then put some in before turning the pumps back on as the water will be milky for a few hours.

I often kill some before a water change. So I kalk them, then I use a syphon to suck out the lumps of kalk before I put fresh water back in. Just helps stop the PH spike.

This method works 14/15 times. Ocasionally you have to attack the same aipstasia twice. I have killed hundreds of Aipstasia and am confident that I now have them under control. Not sure if I will ever be free of them, but I will get their numbers so low I will only need to kill a few once a month, which won't be to bad.

Good luck and if you need any more help let me know.


Pies

Hope this helps.

 

[Feelers]

Or this ,

Use a saturated solution of Sodium Hydroxide (Drain Away, Draino, whatever you like to call it) and water. Using a syringe, squirt about 0.5 mL into the mouth of each aiptasia. This will kill even the stubborn foot tissue.

I initially used kalk paste like pies, by found that the success rate wasn't that great. Sodium Hydroxide is much more soluble than Calcium Hydroxide, and is more alkaline, completely nuking the aiptasia.

Again don't dose too much at one time. It is not harmful to your reef, unless you directly squirt it onto corals. Just a warning that Sodium Hydroxide will cause sever chemical burns if handled, you can tell if you have it on your hands 'cause they will feel "soapy" and slippery. If you feel your hands becoming slippery, wash with a LOT of cold water. Preferably wear gloves when handling.

As dangerous as the chemical sounds, it is really quite safe for your reef.

It's great to see some different people on this board too, from what I hear, the hobby is really starting to grow.

Layton

 

[Andy Lister]

See if you can find a small frag of a Euphyllia coral, a branching bit will work best and move it around to the locations of the aptasia and leave it overnight, it will sting the pants off the anemone and kill it, then the next day move it to the next location.

I did this in my reef tank, and there is 100kg of fiji live rock in there and had it all cleared in under a week!

im sure your LFS will lend you a bit if you promise to bring it back, or track down someone who is fragging theirs!

~Andy

 

[chrono_war01]

which will mean that the thing will need to be injected.

 

[Paradox]

ive used kalk and it does kill them, but they do pop up again a week or two later. I just ordered some joe's juice and will try that, but I feel that I might need a predator to work in conjuction with manual killing because there are probably many I cant see or get to that are reproducing and introducing more into the tank..

Thanks!